U.S. Pat. No. 4,633,789, as owned by the assignee of this invention, discloses an arrangement for permitting mounting of a drawer unit or similar component to the underside of a work surface or table, which mounting arrangement enables a snap lock connection to be achieved without requiring the use of tools. While the arrangement disclosed in the aforementioned patent has proven highly desirable, particularly in view of its ability to permit a component to be easily and effectively mounted under a work surface by means of a snap lock connection, nevertheless the present invention relates to additional improvements which have been incorporated into the snap lock connection so as to further facilitate both the mounting and demounting of the component without requiring tools and without requiring undue effort on the part of the installer.
In the present invention, the mounting arrangement includes a work surface and a removable component or accessory mounted on the underside thereof. The mounting arrangement includes a pair of front and rear slot-and-projection couplings for fixedly mounting the accessory unit to the underside of the work surface. An elongate cantilevered spring is associated with the component and has an enlarged finger-engaging projection associated with the free end thereof, which projection is automatically urged into one of the slots formed in the work surface when the component is properly mounted and positioned thereon. This enables the component to be easily mounted on the work surface and securely held in the locked position. The finger-engaging projection, however, can be readily manually gripped so as to move it out of the slot, whereupon the component can be readily demounted from the work surface without requiring tools or the like.
Other objects and purposes of the invention will be apparent upon examination of the accompanying drawings and study of the following specification.